Whales seen swimming in Great Pacific Garbage Patch for first time

The researchers wrote, ‘Our sightings of numerous ocean plastics of a wide range of sizes suggest that cetaceans within the [patch] are likely impacted by plastic pollution, either through ingestion or entanglement interactions with debris items.’ The researchers, writing in the journal Marine Biodiversity, spotted the whales from a plane using infrared and laser-scanning LIDAR, IFLScience reports. Every minute of every day, the equivalent of a truckload of plastic enters the world’s oceans, according to Greenpeace statistics. A plastic bag was found 36,000 feet below the surface, at the ocean’s deepest point, the Mariana Trench. Most of the plastic found at the bottom of the sea by divers (89%) has one thing in common, the Deep Sea Debris Database reported: it’s waste such as plastic bottles and bags, designed to be used just once, then thrown away.